Purnells Findings

Before the Civil War, higher education for African American students was virtually nonexistent. The few who did receive schooling, such as Fredrick Douglass, often studied in informal and sometimes hostile settings. Some were forced to teach themselves entirely. Some schools for elementary and secondary training existed, such as the Institute for Colored Youth, a school started in the early 1830s by a group of Philadelphia Quakers. A college education was also available to a limited number of students at schools like Oberlin College in Ohio and Berea College in Kentucky (Purnell 2012). Throughout the period of this debate, attendance at HBCUs increased substantially, as did financial support from the government and individual philanthropists such as John D. Rockefeller and Andrew Carnegie. HBCUs also gained credibility and respect when the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools began formally surveying and accrediting them in 1928 (Purnell 2012)

Ten years later, public HBCUs and black students across the nation became the beneficiaries of the Supreme Court’s decision in the case of Brown v. The Board of Education. The court’s ruling that “separate but equal” schooling was anything but equal meant that states would be forced to better fund the HBCUs and open their other universities to black college-bound student. The case, won by lawyers trained at Howard University, didn’t bring immediate relief in many cases, as states protested the ruling. The Civil Rights Act of 1964 gave the federal government greater power to enforce desegregation (Purnell 2012).

In 1965, the federal government provided aid to HBCUs through the Higher Education Act. It was followed by another important judicial decision, Adams v. Richardson. This case found ten states in violation of the Civil Rights Act for supporting segregated schools. The states were ordered to work actively to integrate institutions, so long as that integration was not carried out at the expense of HBCUs, which were deemed to play an important and unique role in the education of African Americans. The Carter, Reagan, and Bush administrations thought that HBCUs were significant too. President Carter established a program aimed at strengthening and expanding the capacity of the historical black college or university. Reagan issued an executive order aimed at further reversing the effects of previous discriminatory treatment towards black colleges. Congress supported the Reagan order with increased federal funding to HBCUs. Reagan’s successor, George Bush, also issued an executive order, this time building on the Reagan order and establishing a commission in the Department of Education responsible for advising the president on matters regarding historically black colleges and universities (Purnell 2012).

Another pivotal court ruling came in 1992 with the United States Supreme Court’s ruling in United States v. Fordice. The court’s decision required that Mississippi do away with the remnants of a dual, segregated system of education. This was similar to the Adams decision except that no special circumstances were outlined for the treatment of HBCUs. Supporters of black colleges worried that the decision might hurt African American students in the long run if the support and attention they received at HBCUs was taken away. Desegregation is important, in their view, but should never be viewed as a reason for putting black students in a disadvantageous situation. The historical black college or university provides a unique education for African Americans. Students who attend HBCUs graduate with greater frequency than African American students at predominantly white universities, and these students get more academic and social support. HBCUs must be protected because they are not only an important part of our history, but also an important part of our future (Purnell 2012).

Analysis 

HBCU's are important for several reasons and Purnell talks about a few of those reasons. Historically black colleges and universities can give a second chance to African American students to go and get their college degree. After seeing all that was sacrificed just for African Americans to even attend these institutions should motivate one in itself. African American who attend HBCU's ships really look at their situations and evaluate how they should treat their education just for these simple reasons. Nothing that was done during the past should be taken for granted and the detail of some of Purnells findings show readers that. With every giant step for African Americans there seems to always be another obstacle faced ahead. It is great that now African Americans do not have to settle for their education and do not have to go through what their ancestors went through just to attend college. Though these reasons are major there are other situations that affect the African American students now. African Americans are faced with health issues that cannot all be treatable if the time has run its course and has run out. This qualitative, pilot study is under the umbrella topic of the relevancy of historically black colleges and universities and how they are portrayed in the media but under this topic the researcher chose to look at the healthier side of things in hope to help the health issues concerning African Americans.